Exploring and bridging mismatches in Central Asian climate security: a multi-scale and multi-layered review of natural sciences and local realities

There is a prevailing consensus that ongoing climate change in Central Asia impacts not only the natural environment but also the region’s socio-economic stability. However, a notable disciplinary trend can be observed when reviewing the existing research in this area. Although the various phenomena related to climate security constitute an interconnected whole, the consequences of climate change on the environment in Central Asia have primarily been examined through observations and simulations conducted by researchers in the natural sciences. Conversely, researchers in the humanities and social sciences have provided valuable insights through numerous studies on how past social and natural environmental changes have driven vulnerabilities in people’s livelihoods and society as a whole. However, it is noteworthy that a significant number of these studies are not directly related to key concepts such as “ongoing environmental change” and “climate security.” In this paper, the prior research on the impacts of climate change in the five Central Asian countries known to be vulnerable to such shifts, as well as their surrounding regions, was reviewed and organized. This review focuses on diverse spatial scales (e.g. global, national, regional, local, and the body), and methodological approaches (e.g. “top-down” versus “bottom-up” approaches). Through this analysis, the study suggests that there remain significant “mismatches in disciplines” and “mismatches in spatial scales” in research related to climate security in Central Asia. Ultimately, this study attempts to identify where these critical mismatches occur and to explore how they can be effectively bridged.